HIS MAJESTY’S LOYAL OPPOSITION

 

HIS MAJESTY’S LOYAL OPPOSITION

Sometime in the 1820s this phrase was first used to describe the party out of power in Britain. It implied members would cooperate with the government even though they did not agree with them. The opposition party accepted the basic structures of civil society though they had their own ideas about how it should be governed.

I was thinking of this basic framework while re-reading John W. O’Malley’s marvellous book, What happened at Vatican II. O’Malley describes the deep-felt opposition of some of the cardinals, especially Alfredo Ottaviani, to the direction the council was taking in the first session in 1962. At one point the cardinal seems to have lost his temper as he raised his voice, ‘I have no choice but to say no more because, as Scripture teaches, when nobody is listening words are a waste of time.’

I mention this moment of tension and, when we reflect on it, we catch a glimpse of the creative dynamic at work when people have different opinions. No one tried to silence Ottaviani or those who opposed him. The bishops listened to each other inside and outside the council chamber. Gradually, over four years, a marvellous set of documents emerged which we are still trying to digest sixty years later.

In the early church there were also heated debates and reports of angry bishops pulling the beards of those they disagreed with! And, even earlier, in the Acts of the Apostles we find disagreements. The point surely is that differences of view do not have to break the unity, the communion, of people with one another. When we listen to one another with respect we discover something new and life-giving. There are leaders who cannot tolerate opposition. Opponents are labelled rebels who want ‘regime change’. When we don’t listen, we may miss out on something that could really help us move forward.

Moses, in today’s first reading, had sharp words for Joshua on this subject and Jesus, in the gospel, tells John, who wants to silence someone who is not ‘one of us’, to let him alone; ‘you must not stop him … Anyone is not against us if for us.’

Tension means ‘holding’; not too tight, not too loose. You hold a bird in your hand. If you hold it too tight, you may crush it. Too loose and it will escape. The guitar string is tightened – not too much, not too little. And so it is in the Church as we shall surely see in the Synod. Would that we could also see it in civil society, in families and indeed in all our differences.                                                                             29 Sept 2024           Sunday 26 B           Num 11:25-29         Jam 5:1-6                Mk 9:38-48